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A shadowy group of ‘dog hunters’ that communicates via the Internet is waging war on packs of feral dogs in Russia's cities, killing the dogs with poison and airgun bullets.

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But dog owners and animal rights activists are up in arms,
saying the campaign is cruel and ineffective and that beloved pets are dying
after accidentally eating the poisoned bait.

The semi-clandestine Doghunters network has grown steadily
and spread from Moscow to other large cities
including Novosibirsk in Siberia
and Yekaterinburg in the Urals.

The group's members say they want to solve the problem of
stray dogs, both abandoned pets and their offspring born on the streets, which
have bred vigorously and often attack passers-by.

The members post graphic photos of slain dogs on specialised
Internet forums where they also exchange tips on the best poisons and how to
kill a dog with an airgun.

In the Moscow
region, some 1 300 dogs have been killed – most of them poisoned – by the
group members in the past three years, according to animal rights activists.

In a manifesto published on a website called Vredy.org, or
Nuisances, Doghunters say their goal is to "fight against the parasitic
fauna that stops humans from living safely and comfortably."

"We are fighting wild dogs. We do not exterminate pet
dogs," Doghunters say on their website, titled ‘No to vermin!’

But pet owners complain their dogs are also falling victims
to the poisoned baits.

Some 500 dog owners rallied last month after dozens of dogs
were poisoned over the course of a few weeks while being taken for walks in a Moscow park.

Threatening signs put up in the park said that dogs must be
muzzled and on leads and "if you do not respect these rules, your dogs
will die too".

The signs were illustrated with photographs of children
bitten by dogs.

The dog owners demanded that the Doghunters be put on trial,
calling them "sadists" and "butchers" and threatening
physical reprisals.

"If I ever see someone poisoning a dog, I will skin him
– even if I go to prison for it," popular actor Leonid Yarmolnik said
during the protest.

The Soviet authorities routinely captured and killed stray
dogs, but after the fall of the Soviet Union, the population ballooned,
reaching 30 000 in Moscow
alone by 1996.

Nearly 400 people died in Russia
between 2000 and 2010 after being attacked by dogs and over 13 000 are
bitten every year in Moscow.

"We do not want to become victims," activist
Dogmeat said, adding that he joined Doghunters after several people he knew were
attacked by dogs.

"There are packs of very aggressive stray dogs,"
animal trainer Yelena Orochko told AFP. "These are big and strong animals
capable of surviving on the streets."

While the dogs have to survive harsh conditions and sub-zero
temperatures, members of the public feed them and they also take food from
easily accessible rubbish bins.

A programme for stray dogs launched in 2001 by Moscow city hall under
which the dogs were sterilised and then let free proved ineffective.

Since 2008 the dogs have not been re-released after a
55-year-old jogger was attacked and killed by stray dogs.

The city has built shelters that can accommodate almost 15 000
animals, but that is still insufficient.

"We would prefer for the dogs to be captured and placed
in shelters, where if no one claimed them, they would be put down," one
"Doghunter" member from Siberia, who
gave only his nickname of Dogmeat, told AFP.

He claimed that government efforts "had no effect"
so far because the state funding allocated for tackling the problem "had
apparently been embezzled".